CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips as energy stocks weigh

* TSX down 71.04 points, or 0.58 percent, at 12,242.50
* Energy stocks slip despite rise in crude oil price
* Gold miners and banks turn lower after morning strength
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Canada's benchmark equity index
slipped in afternoon trade on Tuesday as energy companies fell
despite rising tensions over Iran supporting crude oil prices.
The four heaviest weights on the resource-rich Toronto index
were oil companies, while banking and mining stocks that had
pushed higher in morning trade also trended lower.
The fall also went against slight gains in copper and a flat
but near-record high gold price as investors focused more on
signs that economic recovery is not assured despite the monetary
easing of several major central banks.
"Equities as a group tend to move with broader-based
macro-economic signals," said Patricia Mohr, vice president,
economics and commodity market specialist at Scotiabank.
"So if investors are worried about global economic
growth...then sometimes equities can actually underperform where
commodities prices are," she said, referring to a similar
historical disconnect between the rising price of bullion and
the lagging performance of gold miners.
At 3 : 11 p.m. (1 911 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's
S&P/TSX composite index was down 7 1.04 points, or 0.5 8
p ercent, at 12,24 2.5 0 . On Monday it dropped 70 points.
Suncor Energy dropped 2 percent to C$32.13, while
Cenovus Energy Inc lost 2.1 percent to C$33.80 and
Crescent Point Energy Corp fell 2.4 percent to C$43.68.
Miner Barrick Gold Corp fell 0.3 percent to
C$40.35, after notching early gains, while competitor Goldcorp
eked out a 0.1 percent gain to C$44.10.
The lack of a solid rising trend in commodity prices could
turn away some investors from now on, a fund manager warned.
"With the direction for commodity prices being less certain,
the index will be less certain. The general trend for both gold
and oil will be higher but will not lead the market," said
Brendan Caldwell, president and chief executive of Caldwell
Investment Management.
"Unless the U.S. dollar completely collapses and gold and
oil go on an unholy tear, which is possible, I think they'll do
well but other sectors will outperform and we don't have very
much of it in our index," he added, warning that the TSX may
struggle to keep up with global peers with deeper exposure to
sectors such as technology and consumer discretionary companies.
Husky Energy Inc slipped 0.4 percent to C$26.50
after the integrated oil producer and refiner declared it had
reached an impasse with the United Steelworkers union in a
four-month strike at the company's 155,000 barrel-per-day Lima,
Ohio, refinery.
Shares in Forbes & Manhattan Coal Corp jumped 3.1
percent to 67 Canadian cents after the coal miner said it plans
to acquire two South African mines from a unit of Rio Tinto in a
bid to boost its output and enlarge its footprint in Africa.